


No Notice gave She, but a Change

by middlemarch



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Childbirth, F/M, Marriage, Season 2, Worry, midwife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 05:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9585671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: This was based on the Tumblr tag that it looks like Jed is with Mary during or after she gives birth in that shot where their heads are so close and they are back-lit. I couldn't resist. She didn't look happy enough to me to have given birth successfully, so I went with labor, prior to transition :)The title is from Emily Dickinson. Mrs. Ballard is my default AU midwife, courtesy of Martha Ballard of A Midwife's Tale. Ellen is one of several housekeepers I've given Jed and Mary.





	

“Mrs. Ballard won’t let me stay, but I’ll be just outside the door,” Jed said. They’d called the midwife a few hours ago and he’d been arguing since she arrived to be allowed to remain at Mary’s side, but the older woman was insistent and no invocation of his expertise as a physician, respect due the master of the house or simple begging had made a difference. He was to be barred from the bedroom where Mary lay and left to his own devices to wait however long it would be. The midwife had suggested he go out and attend to his regular business or visit a friend, but he could not imagine doing either. Even to walk out the door, leaving Mary in the bed in which they’d conceived the baby, to be alone while she labored with Mrs. Ballard and her assistant, seemed impossible. And yet, he knew the midwife would brook no dissent, that he was subject to her decrees and not otherwise; she was the best midwife in the city, had never lost a mother, and that, more than anything, was his concern—that Mary be safe and well-cared for. 

“It’ll be hours yet, Jed, I shan’t like to think of you in the hallway the whole time,” Mary replied, her lips pursed at the end as a contraction took her, her eyes never leaving his face. The pains had started in the dark grey early morning and she looked tired but undaunted. He had been pleased when she told him she was with child but she had been overjoyed in that restrained, radiant Yankee way she had, finally confiding, “I didn’t think we’d be so blessed, before, there was never even a hope” and he had realized that though they were married now, one in the eyes of the Lord and the world, there were secrets between them, wishes she had she had not shared. He was learning how to be her husband and it demanded all his attention; the rewards were sweeter than he could have envisioned.

“The journal Jules sent, I put it aside—that’s why, ah, ah, you couldn’t find it. I thought it might occupy you at a time like now,” she added, breathing heavily for a moment before she summoned a smile for him. He had nearly torn the house apart, looking for the publication his friend had sent a few weeks ago. There had been a letter with it that suggested Jed would find the second and third articles of particular interest and that he expected a rebuttal to follow forthwith. Mary had been serene in the face of his ire though the housemaid had quaked; now he knew why.

“I should scold you but I can’t, can I, when you manage me so neatly. I’ll be downstairs then and before you say it, I’ll eat the dinner Ellen makes without complaint,” he said, brushing the hair back from her face. She had offered so many reassurances to him the past few months-- her mother’s successful deliveries of six children, Mrs. Ballard’s renowned prowess, her own robust constitution, but she would still worry about him and she mustn’t. Not now.

“You may complain a little, I suppose,” she said. Mrs. Ballard stepped back in the room then and gave Jed the look that said he must go and let her be about her business; he recognized it from every hospital ward and clinic he had ever attended, the senior physician’s imperturbable command.

“I love you, Mary,” he said, doing his best to keep the fear of losing her from his voice.

“Soon, you shall have two to love,” she said, the smile in her eyes his alone. He nodded and walked out the door to the brisk murmur of the midwife, to wait the hours in the blue parlor, trying to convince himself he could distract himself with reading the French articles, that he would understand a single word until he heard his name being called from an open door, the counterpoint a baby’s indignant cry.

**Author's Note:**

> This was based on the Tumblr tag that it looks like Jed is with Mary during or after she gives birth in that shot where their heads are so close and they are back-lit. I couldn't resist. She didn't look happy enough to me to have given birth successfully, so I went with labor, prior to transition :)
> 
> The title is from Emily Dickinson. Mrs. Ballard is my default AU midwife, courtesy of Martha Ballard of A Midwife's Tale. Ellen is one of several housekeepers I've given Jed and Mary.


End file.
